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Ezekiel  Wilson  Mundy   J^ 

A  Book  of  Loving  Remembrance 


By 
His  Friends 


Who  has  not  learned,  in  honrs  of  faith, 
The  truth  to  flesh  and  sense  unknown : 

That  Life  is  ever  lord  of  Death, 

And  Love  can  never  lose  its  own." 


Syracuse  Public  Library 

1917 


yff* 


LIBRARY 
SCHOOL 


tdu  i.-i.  I 


THE  CONTRIBUTORS 

The    authors   of  this   collection   of  tributes  and 
reminiscences  are 

Salem  Hyde,  a  member  of  the  Board  of  Trustees 
of  the  Library  since  1905. 

Rev.  Charles  Edward  Smith,  D.D.,  of  Fre- 
donia,  a  classmate  of  Dr.  Mundy  at  the 
University  of  Rochester,  and  his  successor 
in  the  pastorate  of  the  First  Baptist  Church 
in  Syracuse  in  1875. 

Rev.  William  H.  Casey,  late  of  Union  Springs, 
where  he  was  for  many  years,  and  until  his 
death,  January  17,  191 7,  rector  of  Grace 
Episcopal  Church.  He  was  a  graduate  of 
Trinity  College,  Cambridge. 

Rev.  C.  J.  Shrimpton  of  Athol,  Mass.  He 
and  Ezekiel  Mundy  were  boys  together  in 
Newark,  New  Jersey. 

Rush  Rhees,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  President  of  the 
University  of  Rochester,  at  whose  hands  Dr. 
Mundy  received  the  degree  of  Doctor  of 
Literature  in  19 10. 

Paul  M.  Paine,  Librarian  of  the  Syracuse 
Public  Library. 

3 


897 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

The  Contributors       ....         3 

The  Mundy  Family     ....         9 

Ezekiel  Mundy  as  a  Boy,  by  C.  J.  Shrimp- 
ton  .         .         .         .         .         .         .11 

From   a  Classmate,  by  Charles  Edward 

Smith       ......       15 

Personal  Recollections,  by  William  H. 

Casey        .  .  .  .  19 

Dr.  Mundy  and  his  Alma  Mater,  by 

Rush  Rhees        .....       30 

Dr.  Mundy  as  a  Librarian,  by  Salem 

Hyde 31 

The  Life  Immortal,  by  William  H.  Casey         41 

Resolutions  of  the  Trustees  of  the 
Syracuse  Public  Library      .         -49 

Conclusion,  Paul  M.  Paine.  .         .        52 


Ezekiel  Wilson  Mundy 


THE  MUNDY  FAMILY 

The  earliest  record  of  the  family  to  which 
Dr.  Mundy  belonged  is  that  of  the  marriage 
of  Thomas  Mundy  to  Sarah  Wilson  on  Janu- 
ary 3,  1770.  These,  Dr.  Mundy  believed, 
were  his  great  grandparents,  though  the 
name  of  the  wife  does  not  correspond  to  the 
name  given  in  Thomas  Mundy 's  will.  The 
grandfather,  Ezekiel  Mundy,  son  of  Thomas 
Mundy  was  born  December  10,  1774  and 
died  October  24,  1832.  He  married  Lov- 
icy  Mundy,  the  daughter  of  Joshua  Mundy 
on  April  16,  1796,  and  lived  near  Metuchen, 
N.  J.,  on  the  farm  later  occupied  by  his  son, 
Ogden  Mundy.  Ezekiel  Mundy  had  seven 
children,  the  fourth  of  whom,  Luther  Bloom- 
field  Mundy,  Dr.  Mundy's  father,  was  born 
in  1807.  On  January  26,  1831,  he  married 
Frances  Eliza  Martin/daughter  of  Dr.  William 
and  Sarah  Elston  Martin.  They  lived  near  the 
Oak  Tree  School  House,  two  miles  north  of 
Metuchen.  Their  children  were  Adeliza, 
born  1832;  Edward  Livingston,  born  1835; 
9 


io  THE  MUNDY  FAMILY 

Louise  Matilda,  born  1837;  Caroline  Virginia, 
born  1842,  and  Ezekiel  Wilson,  the  second 
eldest,  who  was  born  June  16, 1833,  m  a  tenant 
house  on  the  farm  of  his  grandfather  Ezekiel. 

For  much  of  the  good  influence  which 
characterized  Ezekiel  W.  Mundy's  early  days 
he  always  credited  the  Oak  Tree  School 
House  and  its  teacher,  Bethune  Dunkin.  He 
was  a  remarkable  school  teacher,  the  nephew 
of  Sir  William  Dunkin,  Lord  Chief  Justice 
of  India.  The  father  of  Bethune  was  taken 
prisoner  by  the  Yankees  during  the  Revolution 
and  was  brought  to  Boston  where  he  married 
the  daughter  of  a  first-class  Boston  family. 
Their  son,  Bethune,  taught  school  near  Metu- 
chen  for  fifty  years. 

Ezekiel  W.  Mundy  married  Emily  Kendall, 
January  15,  1873.  She  is  the  daughter  of 
the  late  Horace  and  Emily  King  Kendall. 


EZEKIEL  MUNDY  AS  A  BOY 

REV.    C.    J.    SHRIMPTON 

My  friendship  with  Mr.  Mundy  dates 
from  the  time  we  were  boys  seventeen  or 
eighteen  years  of  age.  We  were  first  brought 
together  as  members  of  the  same  church  in 
Newark,  N.  J. 

Mundy  was  in  the  habit  of  writing  a  list 
of  the  boys  who  entered  the  church,  and  hand- 
ing a  copy  to  the  last  recruit,  with  his  name 
at  the  bottom  of  the  list.  This  was  done 
without  his  being  requested  to  do  it,  but  sim- 
ply in  obedience  to  the  principle  of  order 
which  governed  his  whole  life.  I  remember 
distinctly  that  when  he  handed  me  the  list 
with  my  name  appended,  there  were  between 
twenty  and  thirty  names  enrolled. 

There  were  duties  that  fell  to  each  one  of  us 
in  the  conduct  of  the  church's  work,  and  by 
consulting  the  lists  Mundy  had  given  us, 
we  knew  when  each  one's  turn  came  to  serve. 

The  pastor  of  the  church  of  which  we 
ii 


12      EZEKIEL  MUNDY  AS  A  BOY 

were  members  was  one  of  the  most  remark- 
able men  I  have  ever  known.  He  had  a 
most  uncommon  ability  in  securing  the 
attention  and  confidence  of  young  people. 
As  Mundy  once  said  of  him,  "He  knew  how 
a  boy  felt."  This  explains  the  gathering 
around  him  of  such  a  large  circle  of  young 
people,  for  there  were  as  many  girls  as  there 
were  boys. 

The  intimacy  thus  formed  between  Mr. 
Mundy  and  me  has  not  only  lasted  through 
this  long  period  but  has  steadily  grown  in 
depth  and  affection.  With  more  or  less 
regularity  we  have  visited  each  other  and 
maintained  a  constant  correspondence. 

When  we  reached  manhood  we  both 
determined  to  enter  the  Christian  ministry. 
He  went  to  Rochester  and  took  a  full  college 
course  in  the  University  in  that  city.  I  have 
heard  it  said  repeatedly  that  he  was  one 
of  the  best  scholars  ever  graduated  from 
Rochester  University. 

His  acquaintance  with  literature  was  un- 
commonly wide  and  accurate,  and  though  he 
made  not  the  least  boast  or  even  allusion  to 
his  attainments,  no  one  could  be  in  his  com- 
pany for  any  length  of  time  without  learning 
how  well-stored  his  mind  was. 


EZEKIEL  MUNDY  AS  A  BOY      13 

It  was  inevitable  that  abilities  of  so  high 
an  order  should  be  suitably  recognized  and 
the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Literature  was 
conferred  upon  him,  both  by  Alma  Mater 
and  also  by  Syracuse  University.  More 
than  once  he  visited  Europe,  and  few  men 
could  derive  the  profit  that  he  did  from  the 
spectacle  of  the  older  civilizations. 

And  this  brings  me  to  think  of  his  longest 
task  in  life.  If  he  had  had  his  eye  upon  the 
position  of  librarian,  he  could  not  have 
guided  his  course  with  clearer  purpose  to  that 
important  task. 

He  was  gifted  with  a  remarkably  even  tem- 
per. In  all  the  long  period  of  our  close  inti- 
macy I  never  saw  him  irritated.  With  a  quiet 
and  firm  mind  he  held  to  his  own  views  with- 
out arousing  opposition,  and  thus  he  was 
ready  to  come  into  contact  with  all  sorts  and 
conditions  of  people  as  the  head  of  an  impor- 
tant public  institution. 

From  the  very  outset  of  his  connection  with 
the  Library,  when  it  was  in  the  High  School 
building,  his  culture  and  his  judgment  made 
themselves  felt.  All  the  people  of  Syracuse 
know  with  what  a  firm  and  competent  and 
gracious  hand  he  guided  the  growth  and 
progress  and  efficiency  of  the  Public  Library. 


14      EZEKIEL  MUNDY  AS  A  BOY 

But  my  mind  does  not  rest  upon  the  great 
public  utility  of  Dr.  Mundy's  life  so  much  as 
because  he  was  my  dearest  and  most  faithful 
and  intimate  friend. 

The  world  is  poorer  since  he  left.  I  miss 
his  calm,  clear  mind,  his  steady,  quiet  judg- 
ment upon  all  the  many  occasions  upon  which 
I  was  wont  to  consult  him. 


FROM  A  CLASSMATE 

REV.    CHARLES    EDWARD    SMITH 

My  acquaintance  with  Dr.  Mundy  began 
in  September,  1856,  when  we  both  entered 
college  as  freshmen  in  the  University  of 
Rochester.  Looking  my  class  over  for  an 
agreeable  room-mate  I  decided  that  Ezekiel 
Wilson  Mundy  was  the  most  attractive  man. 
He  accepted  my  proposal  and  we  lived  to- 
gether for  two  years,  when  an  advantageous 
offer  to  enable  me  to  earn  my  expenses  took 
me  to  another  home.  Still  we  were  together 
parts  of  almost  every  day;  we  belonged  to 
the  same  Greek  letter  fraternity,  and  we  con- 
tinued in  the  most  intimate  relations  till 
the  end  of  our  theological  course  five  years 
later. 

When  we  graduated  and  he  began  his  life- 
work  in  Syracuse  as  pastor  of  the  First  Bap- 
tist church,  I  settled  elsewhere,  but  was 
frequently  in  Syracuse,  and  in  1875  succeeded 
him  as  pastor  of  the  same  church,  and  for 
15 


16  FROM  A  CLASSMATE 

ten  years  more  we  were  residents  of  the  same 
city,  and  in  frequent  and  happy  association 
with  each  other.  Then  our  ways  parted 
again,  but  not  to  prevent  occasional  meetings, 
sometimes  extended  to  weeks,  and  a  life- 
long correspondence,  the  last  letter  from  him 
reaching  me  not  a  great  while  before  his 
death.  No  two  brothers  could  have  been 
more  fondly  attached  to  each  other,  nor  could 
have  endeavored  to  keep  in  touch  with  each 
other  more  solicitously  than  we  have  done. 
It  will  be  seen  that  I  have  had  every  needed 
opportunity  to  know,  understand,  and  appre- 
ciate Dr.  Mundy,  and  it  is  a  pleasure  for  so 
old  a  friend  to  pay  tribute  to  his  worth. 
We  have  loved  each  other  in  spite  of  great 
differences  of  temperament,  mental  bias,  and 
belief.  As  students  we  were  almost  never 
both  on  the  same  side  of  any  question;  of 
course  I  disapproved  his  change  of  sentiment 
when  he  organized  his  Independent  Church, 
and  it  was  at  almost  our  last  interview  that 
he  said,  with  tears  in  his  eyes,  that  he  did 
not  want  to  hurt  my  feelings  by  expressing 
his  disagreement  with  me  on  some  religious 
questions.  He  was  radical  and  I  was  conser- 
vative; novelties  and  difficulties  interested 
him,  while  I  clung  to  settled  opinions  and  old 


FROM  A  CLASSMATE  17 

truths;  but  great  as  were  our  differences  and 
tendencies  we  loved  and  appreciated  each 
other  highly. 

The  reason,  at  least  on  my  side,  is  not  far 
to  seek.  I  had  the  highest  respect  for  his 
intellectual  ability,  as  indeed  all  who  have 
known  him  well  must  have  had.  As  a  stu- 
dent he  commanded  the  respect  of  his  fellow- 
students  at  every  recitation,  and  the  faculty 
regarded  him  as  one  of  the  most  brilliant 
men  of  his  class.  No  professor  ever  said  an 
uncomplimentary  word  to  him  but  once, 
and  then  Mundy  left  the  room,  and  the  pro- 
fessor made  the  amende  honorable  by  apologiz- 
ing. His  culture,  acquaintance  with  books, 
and  literary  ability  are  attested  by  his  long 
and  great  success  as  a  librarian. 

But  the  great  charm  of  his  character  and 
that  which  has  given  him  his  greatest  influence 
over  others,  was  his  delightful  social  qualities. 
He  was  the  most  lovable  of  men.  In  college 
there  was  no  man  who  drew  friends  to  himself 
and  was  always  met  with  pleasure  and  hailed 
as  a  good  fellow  like ' '  Zeke  Mundy. ' '  I  doubt 
if  there  is  one  whose  hold  upon  college  friend- 
ships has  been  so  strong  as  his.  I  was  with 
him  once  when  he  was  building  the  edifice 
for  the   Independent   Church,   and   a  lady 


18  FROM  A  CLASSMATE 

said  to  me,  "We  are  building  a  new  church  to 
worship  Mr.  Mundy  in. "  I  did  not  take  her 
words  literally,  but  they  did  truly  express  the 
large  part  which  his  social  attractiveness 
had  in  that  enterprise. 

For  a  number  of  years  we  have  always 
gone  to  college  commencements  together,  as 
neither  of  us  wanted  to  face  the  crowd  of 
strangers  alone.  I  was  with  him  when  he 
received  his  degree  of  Doctor  of  Literature 
at  Rochester,  and  as  he  stood  among  the 
Dons  with  his  cap  and  gown,  I  thought  that 
none  of  them  deserved  the  distinction  more 
than  he.  It  was  an  honor  which  Syracuse 
had  paid  him  some  time  before,  but  which 
scholars  had  awarded  him  much  earlier.  We 
who  knew  him  well  will  always  think  of  him 
as  "a  gentleman  and  a  scholar,"  but  the 
best  thing  still  in  our  hearts  to  recall  is  that 
"to  know  him  was  to  love  him." 


PERSONAL  RECOLLECTIONS  OF  AN 
OLD  FRIEND 

REV.   WILLIAM  H.    CASEY 

Everyone  who  knew  Ezekiel  Mundy  for  as 
many  years  as  I  have  done  and  with  anything 
like  the  same  intimacy,  must  feel  with  me 
that  something  has  gone  out  of  our  lives 
which  cannot  fail  to  make  them  henceforth 
sensibly  and  visibly  poorer  than  they  were: 
and  probably  all  of  us  have  asked  ourselves 
what  is  the  reason  of  this  unmistakable  im- 
poverishment. A  partial  explanation  of  it  may 
be  found  in  our  profound  belief  that  through 
and  through  Ezekiel  Mundy  was  a  gentle- 
man; not  such  a  gentleman  as  is  described 
by  Aristotle,  but  such  an  one  as  is  partially 
portrayed  in  the  15th  Psalm  which,  in  order 
to  make  my  meaning  clear,  I  here  cite  with- 
out any  abbreviation  or  apology : 

Lord,  who  shall  sojourn  in  thy  holy  tab- 
ernacle?   Who  shall  dwell  in  thy  holy  hill? 
He   that    walketh    uprightly,   and   worketh 
19 


20      PERSONAL  RECOLLECTIONS 

righteously.  And'  speaketh  truth  in  his 
heart.  He  that  slandereth  not  with  his 
tongue.  Nor  doeth  evil  to  his  friend.  Nor 
taketh  up  a  reproach  against  his  neighbour. 
In  whose  eyes  a  reprobate  is  despised;  But  he 
honoureth  them  that  fear  the  Lord.  He  that 
sweareth  to  his  own  hurt,  and  changeth  not. 
He  that  putteth  not  out  his  money  to  usury. 
Nor  taketh  reward  against  the  innocent. 
He  that  doeth  these  things  shall  never  be 
moved. 

But  even  this  definition,  good  as  it  is,  is  in- 
complete and  needs,  when  we  are  thinking 
of  Ezekiel  Mundy,  to  be  supplemented  by 
the  following  citation  from  St.  Paul's  letter 
to  his  friends  in  Corinth.  A  gentleman,  we 
are  there  given  to  understand,  is  a  man  who 
" suffereth  long  and  is  kind;  who  envieth  not; 
who  doth  not  vaunt  himself,  and  is  not 
puffed  up;  who  doth  not  behave  himself 
unseemly,  who  seeketh  not  his  own,  thinketh 
no  evil;  rejoiceth  not  in  iniquity,  but  rejoiceth 
in  the  truth;  beareth  all  things;  believeth  all 
things,  hopeth  all  things,  endureth  all 
things."  Such  an  one  I  verily  believe 
Ezekiel  Mundy  to  have  been;  and  I  venture 
to  think  that  among  those  who  knew  him  well 
there  cannot  be  one  man,  no,  nor  one  woman 
either,  who  will  not  say,  "Here,  indeed,  is 


PERSONAL  RECOLLECTIONS      21 

a  veritable  picture  of  the  friend  whom  I  have 
loved  and  lost  awhile." 

But  in  all  this  I  am  wandering  far  beyond 
the  definition  of  his  position  as  a  churchman. 
That  I  shall  be  able  to  do  this  to  the  satis- 
faction of  those  whose  relations  with  him  were 
almost  wholly  ecclesiastical  I  have  not  the 
slightest  expectation,  if  for  no  other  reason, 
than  for  this  one ;  because  it  is  impossible  to 
paint  a  man  who  resolutely  refuses  to  sit  for 
his  picture.  It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  say 
that  he  was  a  man  of  more  than  commonly 
deep  religious  principle,  or  that  his  religion 
was  of  that  simple  practical  kind  which  St. 
James  describes  in  the  first  chapter  of  his 
Epistle, — a  religion  as  little  differentiated  by 
the  mysticism  which  has  often  been  attri- 
buted to  him  as  the  Ten  Commandments  or 
the  Sermon  on  the  Mount. 

With  regard  to  churchmanship,  he  used  to 
say  that  he  was  "a  very  weak  brother,"  which 
in  my  judgment  he  certainly  was  not ;  and  in 
order  to  give  to  this  point-blank  denial  weight 
which  it  could  not  otherwise  possess,  I  may 
perhaps  be  permitted  to  say  what  would  other- 
wise be  a  gross  impertinence,  namely,  that  I 
am  to  the  Great  Manor  born  and  was  taught 
what  the  term  "churchmanship "  really  means 


22      PERSONAL  RECOLLECTIONS 

by  my  old  tutors,  Harold  Brown,  Joseph 
Barbour  Lightfoot,  and  Samuel  Wilberforce. 
No, — he  was  "a  weak  brother"  only  in  his 
own  eyes  and  in  those  of  his  clerical  brethren 
who  until  the  day  before  yesterday  were 
clergymen  in  some  one  or  other  of  the  Pro- 
testant churches,  and  had  not  yet  learned  to 
see  the  church  of  their  adoption  in  dry  light 
and  true  perspective.  It  is  true  that  he  some- 
times described  himself  as  a  Low  Church- 
man, but  to  that  statement  also,  even  though 
it  came  from  himself,  I  must  demur,  unless 
it  be  so  illegitimately  stretched  as  to  include 
Stanley,  Maurice,  and  Jowett,  in  which  case 
some  other  term  should  be  employed. 

Towards  the  cult  of  advanced  Ritualism, 
his  attitude  was  one  of  amiable  stand-aloof- 
ness not  unmixed  with  wonderment.  To 
him,  as  to  Pusey,  religion  was  far  too  personal 
a  thing  to  need  any  of  the  adjuncts  of  external 
beauty.  His  life  was  simplicity  itself,  and  his 
personal  habits  of  such  a  nature  that  he  need- 
ed no  change  in  externals  to  symbolize  the 
change  which  he  would  like  to  have  seen 
in  the  dogmatic  teaching  of  the  Church.  His 
warfare  was  not  of  this  world;  if  he  could 
get  men  to  take  his  view  of  the  Church,  he  was 
content;  and  he  left  it  to  others  to  fight 


PERSONAL  RECOLLECTIONS      23 

for  the  symbolic  recognition  of  their  views, 
well  knowing  that  the  symbols  themselves 
were  worthless  so  long  as  the  beliefs  were 
wanting.  In  order  to  make  any  mis-trans- 
lation of  these  words  impossible,  I  deem  it 
nothing  less  than  fair  to  state  that  within  my 
knowledge  and  rather  less  than  two  years 
ago  in  the  course  of  a  letter  addressed  to  a 
young  priest  of  much  more  definitely  marked 
churchmanship  than  his  own,  he  said,  "There 
are  so  many  of  your  sort  who  work  hard 
and  say  nothing  about  it,  and  there  are  so 
many  of  my  sort  who  talk  a  great  deal  and 
do  not  work  at  all,  that  I  have  somewhat 
changed  my  notions  on  these  matters": 
meaning  thereby,  as  he  afterwards  told  me, 
that  for  their  work's  sake  he  would,  as  far 
as  possible,  close  his  eyes  to  practices  which 
he  did  not  approve. 

The  only  party  in  the  Church — if  "party" 
be  not  far  too  large  a  term  by  which  to  de- 
scribe less  than  one  per  cent,  of  the  clergy — 
whom  he  thoroughly  disliked  is  made  up  of 
those  whose  pliant  theology  and  conjectured 
science  are  in  a  state  of  unceasing  flux,  who 
believe  it  to  be  a  sign  of  liberality  at  five 
or  ten  minutes'  notice  to  refit  their  "views"  to 
the  latest  scientific  guess  and  to  bow  with 


24      PERSONAL  RECOLLECTIONS 

equal  deference  to  the  Lord  and  to  the  devil. 
Dabblers  and  babblers,  chatterers  and  smat- 
terers  in  a  theology  of  which  they  know  very 
little  and  a  philosophy  of  which  they  know 
nothing,  he  did  occasionally  treat  according 
to  their  deserts,  and  when  he  did  it  was 
Vcb  metis.  He  liked  men  to  be  one  thing  or  the 
other,  whether  they  agreed  with  him  or  not, 
but  those  who  were  neither  "hot  nor  cold" 
he  was  quite  apt — to  cite  the  vigorous  lan- 
guage of  St.  John  the  Aged — "to  spue  out  of 
his  mouth." 

Very  significant  and  interesting  also  was 
the  attitude  of  his  mind  towards  the  diffi- 
culties of  belief  of  the  present  day,  and 
particularly  towards  the  "free-handling"  of 
Holy  Scripture,  often  attempted  with  a 
view  to  meet  them.  His  mind  was  too 
open  and  too  candid  either  to  ignore  difficul- 
ties, or  to  tie  itself  rigidly  down  to  the  narrow 
conceptions  of  inspiration  and  interpretation, 
in  which  he  had  been  brought  up.  From 
his  youth  upwards  he  had  taken  a  wide 
interest  in  literature  and  science,  and  during 
the  later  years  of  his  life  he  had  given  himself 
very  largely  to  purely  metaphysical  reading 
and  still  more  largely  to  metaphysical  think- 
ing.    Accordingly,  both  as  an  inquirer  and  a 


PERSONAL  RECOLLECTIONS      25 

teacher,  whose  guidance  was  sought  by  minds 
as  inquiring  as  his  own,  these  questions  were 
prominently  before  him.  His  view  of  such 
difficulties  was  eminently,  in  the  rightful  sense 
of  the  word,  a  view  of  faith,  deeply  conscious 
of  the  reality  of  the  truths  to  which  God 
had  led  him  in  the  Word,  refusing  to  give 
them  up,  because  they  could  not  as  yet 
explain  all  other  truths  really  or  appar- 
ently discovered  by  science,  but  certain  that 
all  truths  must  harmonize,  and  hoping 
that,  in  degree  at  least,  that  harmony 
would  manifest  itself  even  here  to  those 
who  would  at  once  search  for  it  and  wait 
for  it. 

Thus,  speaking  on  the  conclusions  suggest- 
ed by  geological  science  as  to  the  origin  and 
date  of  man's  appearance  in  the  world,  and 
their  apparent  inconsistency  with  Scripture, 
he  has  again  and  again  spoken  to  me  very 
much  as  follows : — 

"Ly ell's  speculations  do  not  seem  to  me  to 
touch  the  origin  of  man  or  the  date  of  his 
first  appearance  on  the  earth;  but  what  of 
that?  One  way  or  the  other?  I  have  very 
little  sensitiveness  on  such  subjects;  and  of 
a  disturbing  kind  none  at  all.  On  the  con- 
trary,  every  year   as  it  passes   leaves   me 


26      PERSONAL  RECOLLECTIONS 

more  and  more  sure  that  there  cannot  be 
any  real  discrepancy  between  the  intimations 
of  inspiration  and  the  established  facts  of 
science,  for  the  one  is  just  as  truly  the  voice  of 
God  as  the  other." 

I  remember  very  clearly  that  at  one  of  our 
old  time  clerical  meetings  and  for  just  such 
an  utterance  as  this  he  was  denounced  by  a 
young  clergyman  whose  orders  were  at  that 
time  less  than  a  year  old  as  "the  lineal 
descendant  of  Bunyan's  'Mr.  Facing  Both- 
ways. '  To  this  ill-begotten  and  ill-born 
sneer,  and  with  flashing  eyes  Bishop  Hunt- 
ington made  answer,  "Young  man!  you  are 
bearing  false  witness  against  your  neighbor. 
My  dear  friend  Dr.  Mundy — and  I  speak 
whereof  I  know — is  as  little  influenced  by 
the  strife  of  tongues  as  were  Shadrach, 
Meshach,  and  Abed-nego  of  Nebuchadnez- 
zar's burning  fiery  furnace. "  It  will  throw  a 
kindly  side-light  on  my  dear  friend's  char- 
acter if  I  record  that  after  this  flaying  process 
had,  in  his  judgment,  lasted  long  enough, 
he  was  heard  to  say  sotto  voce,  "Have  you 
forgotten,  Bishop,  that  the  gentleman 
who  is  sitting  next  to  you  is  an  officer  of  the 
Society  for  the  Prevention  of  Cruelty  to 
Animals?" 


PERSONAL  RECOLLECTIONS      2-j 

Of  his  work  as  a  parish  priest  I  know  but 
little,  and  experimentally  nothing  at  all. 

But  I  do  know  at  first  hand  what  many 
of  his  people  thought  and  said  about  him.  All 
of  them  loved  him.  All  of  them  reverenced 
him.  All  of  them  spoke  of  him  as  a  shepherd 
who  cared  for  the  sheep,  not  merely  as  a 
flock,  but  one  by  one.  One  of  them — a 
shrewd  old  Yorkshireman  but  little  differenti- 
ated by  his  residence  in  this  country — said 
of  him  "  'e  wor  most  as  good  as  t'auld  vicar  of 
Leeds."  (The  great  Dr.  Hook.)  And  as 
I  happen  to  know,  that  is  a  good  deal  for  a 
Yorkshireman  to  say,  whether  he  be  recon- 
structed or  not.  And  a  young  Canadian, 
once  a  member  of  his  congregation  and  after- 
wards for  many  years  the  honored  warden  of 
the  church  with  which  I  have  been  so  long 
associated  has  often  told  me  in  detail  of 
many  men,  and  women  too,  whom  "Good 
Old  Mundy,"  as  he  used  to  call  him,  had 
rescued  from  the  land  of  the  harlot  and  the 
swine. 

What  his  friends  and  contemporaries — 
I  am  now  thinking  of  that  sadly  dwindling 
band  of  men  who  have  been  affectionately 
described  as  the  "Grand  Old  Men  of  Syra- 
cuse"— thought  of  him  they  will  probably  say 


28      PERSONAL  RECOLLECTIONS 

for  themselves,  but  here  is  what  one  of  them, 
no  longer  with  us,  but  the  peer  of  the  best  of 
them,  has  actually  said  about  him  in  a  letter 
addressed  to  myself,  "  There  is  something  in 
that  man,  Mundy, — call  it  by  whatever 
name  you  please — which  compels  reverence 
and  love.  I  doubt  if  any  better  name  can  be 
found  for  it  than  'The  grace  of  Our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ. '  But  describe  it  how  you  will, 
it  is  an  animating  influence  for  good — an 
influence  against  which  men  can't  harden 
themselves,  because  they  are  not  conscious 
of  it.  It  comes  on  them  like  the  early  dews 
of  morning,  or  the  fragrance  of  incense  com- 
ing they  know  not  whence,  and  steals  on  their 
receptive  faculties  before  they  have  time  or 
notice  to  resent  its  interference."  To  the 
people  of  Syracuse  it  is  hardly  necessary  to 
say  that  this  letter  came  from  the  pen  of 
Bishop  Huntington. 

Of  the  more  tender  graces  of  this  good 
man's  character,  this  is  not  the  place  to  speak. 
Such  details  belong  to  his  family,  and  not  to 
the  world.  But  surely  there  can  be  no  im- 
propriety in  recording  the  fact — the  beauti- 
fully pregnant  fact — that  they  who  have 
never  seen  him  in  his  own  home  have  never 
seen  him  at  his  best. 


PERSONAL  RECOLLECTIONS      29 

Of  his  moral  worth  it  must  suffice  to  say 
that  I  always  trusted  him  and  never  found 
him  wanting. 

"A  strong  soul!     By  what  shore 
Tarriest  thou  now?     For  that  force, 
Surely,  has  not  been  left  vain! 
Somewhere,  surely,  afar, 
In  the  sounding  labour-house  vast 
Of  being,  is  practised  that  strength, 
Zealous,  beneficent,  firm." 


DR.  MUNDY  AND  HIS  ALMA  MATER 

DR.    RUSH    RHEES 

Doctor  Ezekiel  Wilson  Mundy,  who  was 
graduated  from  the  University  of  Rochester 
in  i860,  and  received  its  honorary  degree, 
Doctor  of  Literature,  in  1910,  was  one  of 
the  gentlest  spirits  I  have  ever  known.  His 
gentleness  was  of  the  spirit,  for  it  was  coupled 
with  positiveness  of  conviction  and  courage- 
ous loyalty  to  that  conviction.  He  was 
therefore  a  man  of  quiet  but  subtly  powerful 
influence,  and  of  tenaciously  loyal  friendship. 
The  former  all  felt  who  knew  him.  The  latter 
became  a  blessing  to  all  who  shared  its  privi- 
leges. 

Repeatedly  since  his  graduation  from 
college  his  Alma  Mater  had  evidence  of  that 
loyalty.  Repeatedly  successive  academic  gen- 
erations of  students,  who  had  the  opportunity 
to  know  him,  experienced  the  influence  of  his 
strong  character. 

He  was  one  whom  his  Alma  Mater  de- 
lighted to  honor,  and  whose  death  leaves  her 
poorer  in  all  but  memories. 
30 


DR.    MUNDY   AS    LIBRARIAN 

SALEM   HYDE 

It  is  with  much  pleasure  that  I  respond  to 
the  request  to  contribute  something  to  the 
printed  memorial  being  prepared  to  com- 
memorate the  life  and  work  of  our  loved 
Mr.  Mundy,  as  Citizen  and  Librarian.  I 
only  wish  that  what  I  can  say  might  be  more 
worthy  of  the  subject  and  the  setting  than 
anything  I  can  hope  to  prepare. 

For  nearly  if  not  quite  half  a  century  it  has 
been  my  privilege  to  know  Mr.  Mundy  and  for 
the  greater  part  of  that  time  to  count  him  as 
one  of  my  personal  friends.  This  was  indeed  a 
rare  privilege,  for  he  was  a  rare  man,  an  exceed- 
ingly modest  man  yet  with  a  vast  amount 
of  reserve  power  ready  for  all  emergencies. 
There  was  a  quietness,  a  gentleness — what 
Matthew  Arnold  called  "a  sweet  reason- 
ableness"— about  him  that  drew  all  acquaint- 
ances in  loving  friendliness  toward  him  and 
made  him  indeed  the  "  friend  and  helper 
31 


32      DR.  MUNDY  AS  LIBRARIAN 

of  those  who  would  live  in  the  Spirit."  He 
loved  his  friends  and  it  was  impossible  not  to 
love  him.  One  of  the  old  philosophers,  I 
think  it  was  Seneca,  gave  this  advice,  "Let 
us  choose  some  good  man  and  keep  him 
always  before  our  eyes  that  we  may  live  as  if 
he  watched  us  and  do  everything  as  if  he 
saw."  To  anyone  desiring  to  live  the  good 
life  he  could  not  have  made  a  better  choice  for 
such  assistance  than  Mr.  Mundy. 

Early  in  his  married  life  and  in  mine  we 
became  neighbors  and  friends.  He  was 
then  the  minister  of  the  Independent  Church 
which  later  became  the  Lutheran — located  on 
South  Salina  Street.  I  was  not  a  member 
of  his  church  but  occasionally  went  to  hear 
his  sermons.  I  loved  his  quiet  manner, 
his  graceful  elocution,  his  thoughtful  and 
scholarly  discourse,  and  profited  greatly  by 
them.  Mr.  Mundy' s  sermons,  as  I  remember 
them,  were  never  dogmatic  or  doctrinal,  none 
of  the  theological  frightfulness  so  commonly 
preached  in  those  days,  nothing  of  the  sen- 
sational. There  were  Art  and  Poetry  and 
Science,  a  simple  philosophy  of  good  living,  a 
feeling  after  the  truth  if  haply  it  might  be 
found.  There  was  clearness  of  vision,  logical 
sureness  in  his  reasoning,  firmness  in  con- 


DR.  MUNDY  AS  LIBRARIAN       33 

viction,  the  real,  true  culture  that  lives 
by  appreciations  of  what  is  best,  by  sym- 
pathies and  admirations,  not  by  dislikes 
and  disdains,  ever  preserving  the  higher, 
healthier  tone  and  living  on  the  higher  levels 
of  power — a  gospel  of  love,  truth,  beauty, 
God.  Love  and  service  were  the  keynotes. 
You  could  not  help  feeling  that  his  own 
religion  was  expressed  more  by  his  life  than 
by  his  words;  he  was  both  the  idealist  and  the 
practical  man.  As  has  been  said  of  another 
good  man  of  his  type,  "he  kept  about  him 
the  atmosphere  of  the  hills,"  and  in  Mr. 
Mundy's  case  he  was  always  ready  to  come 
down  into  the  lowliest  surroundings  if  there- 
by he  could  serve  his  fellowmen. 

Later  in  life  he  came  to  love  the  beautiful 
forms  of  religion  and  ritual  as  used  in  the 
Episcopal  Church  to  which  he  attached  him- 
self and  in  which  he  found  comfort  and  peace. 
To  that  Church  he  consecrated  many  years 
of  his  active  life,  rendering  highly  appreciated 
service  and  gathering  to  himself  friends  to 
whom  he  was  ever  loyal  and  whose  loyalty  to 
him  were  the  highly  prized  treasures  of  his 
later  and  declining  years. 

Intellectually  Mr.  Mundy  was  character- 
ized by  breadth  of  vision  and  toleration  of 


34      DR.  MUNDY  AS  LIBRARIAN 

thought.  What  a  man  thought  out  for  him- 
self straightly  and  honestly  was  to  him 
deserving  of  the  highest  respect.  While  him- 
self loving  the  beautiful  forms  of  the  Church 
— its  articles  of  faith,  its  rites,  its  organi- 
zation— the  main  thing  was  to  fill  them  with 
the  right  spirit.  To  him  Christ  was  in  every 
life  which  served  man  in  the  Spirit  of  love 
and  self-sacrifice — no  matter  what  the  philo- 
sophy, no  matter  what  the  creed  or  church 
affiliation,  "A  man's  a  man  for  a'  that" — 
goodness  is  goodness,  purity  is  purity,  love  is 
love  wherever  manifested. 

Now  it  usually  happens  that  a  man  devoted 
to  these  lofty  ideals,  devoted  to  literature,  a 
student  of  philosophy,  a  dreamer  of  beauti- 
ful dreams,  religious  in  the  deepest  sense, 
falls  far  short  of  accomplishment  when  under- 
taking to  assume  in  any  large  way  the  re- 
sponsibility of  handling  important  business 
affairs.  Mr.  Mundy  became  the  head  of  our 
Syracuse  Public  Library  when  it  was  a  very 
small  affair  housed  in  a  small  back  room  in 
our  old  City  Hall — that  picturesque  little 
building  with  a  grove  of  stately  trees  in  front 
which  should  have  been  left  as  one  of  the  too 
few  monuments  remaining  to  speak  of  the 
early  civic  life  of  our  City. 


DR.  MUNDY  AS  LIBRARIAN      35 

From  that  small  beginning  with  a  collec- 
tion of  a  few  seedy  volumes  and  a  circulation 
of  most  limited  range  he,  with  patient  fidelity 
to  his  task,  organized  and  built  up  the  vast 
collection  of  worthy  books  now  housed  in  our 
noble  Public  Library  and  distributing  its 
nearly  half  million  volumes  annually.  This 
was  the  successful  construction  of  a  large 
business  enterprise  organized  into  many 
departments  with  competent  heads  and  many 
subordinates.  It  involved  the  selection  and 
purchase  of  many  thousands  of  books  annu- 
ally, a  close  censorship  lest  unworthy  or  un- 
clean literature  found  its  way  to  the  shelves, 
a  careful  and  tactful  discipline  to  be 
maintained  over  the  staff  of  workers,  a  con- 
stant watchfulness  over  the  physical  property' 
— care,  repairs,  additions,  furnishing,  adjust- 
ment of  wages  and  what  not. 

Now,  I  think  the  patrons  of  the  library 
and  my  associates  on  the  Board  will  bear  me 
out  in  the  assertion  that  in  none  of  these 
particulars  did  Mr.  Mundy  fail — while  over 
it  all,  through  it  all,  and  in  it  all  there  was  the 
never-failing  suggestion  in  manner,  in  speech, 
and  gesture  of  the  quiet  gentle  scholar,  the 
superb,  Christian  gentleman.  I  never  saw 
an  angry  or  contemptuous  look  on  his  face. 


36      DR.  MUNDY  AS  LIBRARIAN 

Occasionally  when  some  unusual  provocation 
stirred  others  to  wrath  and  testy  expression,  a 
puzzled  look  would  come  over  his  face  as 
much  as  to  say,  "My  dear,  good  man  how 
could  you  do  or  say  such  a  thing?"  And 
yet  there  was  such  a  strong,  stern  fiber  of 
determined  will  running  through  his  char- 
acter that  when  he  knew  he  was  right,  and 
he  generally  was  right,  enabled  him  in  the 
gentlest  and  most  winning  way  to  bring  about 
the  results  he  aimed  at. 

And  so  this  gentle,  strong  fibered  soul 
worked  on,  and  our  great  library  is  the  pro- 
duct of  his  brain  and  heart.  His  spirit  breathes 
through  every  door  and  window  of  the  mass- 
ive building,  speaks  from  every  bookshelf, 
from  the  deportment  of  every  member  of  the 
Staff  and  every  employee.  All  will  tell  you 
that  they  loved  him  and  that  they  couldn't 
help  it.  Our  city  reaped  the  harvest  of  this 
man's  work.  The  salary  was  meager,  the 
material  benefits  to  himself  slight.  Had 
these  generous  gifts  of  this  "patient  continu- 
ance in  well-doing"  been  directed  toward 
business  or  professional  enterprise  the  re- 
wards could  not  have  been  other  than  great. 
He  has  told  me  of  opportunities  that  had  been 
almost  forced  upon  him  whereby  he  could 


DR.  MUNDY  AS  LIBRARIAN      37 

have  shared  in  rich  material  rewards  and 
scarcely  could  have  failed  to  build  up  a 
substantial  fortune;  "I  did  not  feel  I  had  a 
right  to  do  it, "  he  said,  "  It  seemed  to  me  that 
my  work  lay  in  other  directions — and  yet, 
and  yet"  he  said  "I  have  my  doubts  now — 
on  my  family's  account."  Thus  inspirit 
he  was  another  Louis  Agassiz — he  did  not 
"have  time  to  make  money"  yet  he  was  a 
living,  breathing,  vital  man  in  every  sense  of 
the  word — in  no  sense  a  colorless  character. 
Tennyson  said  of  the  Prince  Consort  that  "he 
wore  the  white  flower  of  a  blameless  life " ; 
so  did  our  gentle  hero  friend  who  was  himself 
worthy  of  any  Tennysonian  panegyric  that 
could  be  written.  Mr.  Mundy  had  great 
aversion  to  all  personal  publicity  although 
the  minutest  revelation  of  the  details  of  his 
life  could  have  no  other  effect  than  to  raise 
him  still  higher  in  the  estimation  of  the 
public. 

At  the  same  time  he  was  possessed  of  a 
force  of  character  and  a  frankness  of  speech 
which,  as  has  been  said  of  a  great  poet  he 
admired,  "saved him  from  the  curse  of  being 
taken  for  that  most  disagreeable  of  beings,  a 
so-called  saint."  Mr.  Mundy' s  love  for  the 
highest   literature,    his   bent    towards    con- 


38      DR.  MUNDY  AS  LIBRARIAN 

templation  and  reflection,  his  proficiency  in 
learning,  his  firm  grasp  on  the  profoundest 
philosophies,  his  peculiar  faculty  or  gift 
of  getting  hold  of  the  precious  kernel  of  a 
truth  or  system  and  imparting  such  knowl- 
edge in  clear,  simple  language  to  others — 
through  writing  or  in  conversation,  was  one 
of  his  most  marked  mental  characteristics 
and  made  him  the  chosen  companion  of  many 
wise  and  learned  men. 

He  was  at  home  with  the  great  literatures 
of  the  world  and  was  able  at  sight  to  dis- 
tinguish what  was  really  worthy  from  the 
ephemeral  trash,  the  silly  nonsense  and  taint- 
ed morality,  now  characterizing  so  much  of 
our  popular  fiction  and  popular  periodical 
literature,  if  literature  it  may  be  called — and 
to  keep  them  out  of  the  library.  Mr.  Mundy 
loved  books  and  loved  to  talk  about  books 
and  to  lend  such  as  especially  appealed  to 
him,  to  his  friends. 

One  of  the  special  delights  of  my  associa- 
tion with  him  was  now  and  then  to  look 
up  from  my  desk,  see  him  come  into  my 
office  with  a  book  under  his  arm  which  had 
pleased  him  and  which  pleasure  he  wished 
me  to  share  by  leaving  the  book  with 
me. 


DR.  MUNDY  AS  LIBRARIAN       39 

Everything  really  artistic  and  beautiful 
appealed  to  him — poetry,  music,  pictures, 
art  in  pottery  especially,  and  in  his  younger 
days  he  was  a  diligent  and  discriminating 
collector  of  choice  specimens  from  all  the 
great  manufacturers.  My  earliest  visits  to 
his  home  were  made  interesting  by  his 
enthusiasm  over  this  collection  and  the  evi- 
dent pleasure  he  had  in  showing  and  de- 
scribing them  to  his  friends — a  taste  to 
which  doubtless  may  be  traced  the  strik- 
ingly beautiful  cameo  and  figure  modeling 
and  coloring  brought  to  such  perfection, 
and  to  such  world-wide  recognition,  in  the 
charmingly  artistic  work  of  his  daughter, 
Miss  Mundy. 

I  must  bring  this  to  a  close  although  I  do 
not  seem  to  have  said  one  half  that  I  would 
like  to  say  or  that  it  is  in  my  heart  to  say.  I 
may  perhaps  add  that  during  the  more  than 
half  century  during  which  I  have  made  my 
home  in  Syracuse  there  have  been  many  able 
men,  strong  men,  men  of  fine  character  and 
commanding  influence  among  her  citizens, 
yet  in  my  estimation  there  has  perhaps 
been  no  man  who  has  stolen  so  quietly  and 
sweetly  and  with  recognized  benefit  into 
the   affections  of   so  many  of  our  citizens 


40      DR.  MUNDY  AS  LIBRARIAN 

and  stayed  there  permanently  as  has  Mr. 
Mundy. 

To  have  been  numbered  amongst  his  per- 
sonal friends,  I  esteem  as  one  of  the  greatest 
privileges  of  my  life. 


THE    LIFE    IMMORTAL 

(ADDRESS  BY  REV.  WILLIAM  H.  CASEY  AT  THE 
FUNERAL  OF  DR.  MUNDY) 

You  and  I,  dear  friends  and  fellow-mourn- 
ers, are  once  more  face-to-face  with  the  great 
enigma. 

Are  we  in  the  presence  of  a  finished  drama? 
If  we  are,  then  is  there  no  escape  from  the 
horrible  alternative, — the  Supreme  Power  in 
the  Universe  is  not  good,  and  no  longer 
deserves  our  worship.  Nay  then — to  put  it 
nakedly — deserves  from  us  nothing  but  pity 
or  execration — pity,  if  this  is  the  best  world 
He  could  make, — execration  if  it  is  not ;  He  is 
unjust  if  He  will  not,  and  impotent  if  He 
cannot  satisfy  the  righteous  longings  which 
He  himself  has  implanted  in  all  His  children. 

Do  I  understand  the  tremendous  signifi- 
cance of  these  words?  Yes,— I  do.  But  what 
would  you  say  of  a  father  who  instilled  into 
his  child's  heart  desires  which  he  knew  could 
not  be  realized, — who  trained  him  to  expect 
41 


42  THE  LIFE  IMMORTAL 

something  which  he  did  not  mean  to  give 
him?  Who  gave  him  such  false  impressions 
of  his  future  prospects  and  position  that 
when  he  awoke  from  his  delusions  he  would 
be  driven  to  despair?  And  how  is  it  possible 
for  you  to  think  that  an  infinite  and  omni- 
potent Creator  is  under  less  obligation  than  a 
weak  and  finite  man?  Do  you  not  believe, — 
do  you  not  know  that  the  higher  you  rise  in 
the  scale  of  being  the  greater  grows  the  sphere 
of  obligation?  Has  He  who  made  us,  or  has 
He  not,  by  a  very  fact  of  creation  laid  Him- 
self under  an  obligation  to  deal  kindly  and 
justly  with  the  beings  He  has  made?  Does 
not  the  fact  of  creation  carry  with  it  an 
infinite  burden  of  responsibility?  Have  we 
not  a  right  to  expect  from  Him  something 
better  than  dust  and  ashes,  and  the  total 
loss  of  love  and  personality?  or,  at  the  very 
least,  the  chance,  if  we  choose  to  avail  our- 
selves of  it,  of  something  better?  And  is  it 
giving  us  something  better  when  we  have 
such  a  passionate  longing  for  immortality,  if 
not  for  ourselves,  at  any  rate  for  others,  to 
answer  it  with  annihilation?  Here  is  a  ques- 
tion which  those  who  deny,  or  even  doubt 
the  continuity  and  never-ending  development 
of  our  personal  life,  must  answer  somehow. 


THE  LIFE  IMMORTAL  43 

This  is  an  inquiry  which  cuts  too  deep  to  be 
relegated  to  the  region  of  notes  and  queries. 
And  I  commend  it  to  your  most  serious 
thinking. 

Yes,  I  know  it  is  sometimes  said  that  to 
an  infinite  intellect  everything  would  appear 
quite  different  from  what  we,  in  our  finitude, 
can  imagine.  But  there  are  many  things 
which  a  finite  mind  can  know  with  infinite 
certainty.  It  does  not  need  infinite  wisdom 
to  know  that  two  parallel  straight  lines 
cannot  enclose  a  space, — nor  does  it  require 
infinite  wisdom  to  know  that  the  glory  of  the 
Creator  is  inevitably  bound  up  with  the 
glory  of  His  creatures.  If  they  are  failures, 
He  has  failed.  If  this  world  is  a  system 
complete  in  itself, — if  this  life  is  not  to  be 
followed  by  another, — if  hopes  are  born  only 
to  be  blighted,  yearnings  roused  only  to  be 
crushed,  beings  created  only  to  be  destroyed; 
if  our  most  passionate  desires  are  doomed 
to  everlasting  disappointment,  if,  after  think- 
ing ourselves  endowed  with  the  power  of  an 
endless  life  we  are  to  die  out  like  the  flame 
of  a  candle,  then,  so  long  as  any  remem- 
brance of  us  lingers  in  the  universe,  we  shall 
be  nothing  but  a  reproach  to  our  Maker,  and 
a  witness  to  the  fact  that  whatever  else  He 


44  THE  LIFE  IMMORTAL 

may  be  He  is  no  God.  What  would  prove 
impotence  in  a  creature  cannot  prove  power 
in  a  Creator;  what  would  bring  contempt 
upon  the  finite  cannot  bring  honor  to  the 
Infinite ;  what  in  us  would  be  unutterable  dis- 
grace cannot  in  Him  be  glory.  If  there  be  no 
immortality,  no  development  for  us,  limited 
only  by  that  which  must  forever  make  it 
impossible  for  the  finite  to  become  infinite, 
what  is  this  but  to  say  that  the  crowning 
achievement  of  the  Deity  is  to  have  created 
an  infinite  number  of  abortions!  To  what 
does  all  this  point?  To  this — and  nothing 
less  than  this,  that  the  alternatives  before  us 
are  immortality  or  atheism,  by  which  I  mean 
to-day  an  utter  denial  of  the  goodness  of 
God. 

Surely  we  shall  place  this  foremost  among 
the  lessons  of  to-day  that  the  life  of  Ezekiel 
Mundy,  cut  short  at  a  moment  when — save 
for  certain  physical  infirmities,  it  seemed  to 
be  ever  growing  nearer  to  its  greatest  useful- 
ness, must  still  be  growing  and  expanding, 
still  learning  and  still  loving,  though  no 
longer  within  our  ken.  Must  there  not  be 
somewhere  out  of  sight  a  more  than  compen- 
sating existence,  a  home  of  many  mansions 
in  which  the  faculties  which  were  so  ham- 


THE  LIFE  IMMORTAL  45 

pered  here  shall  find  full  scope  and  a  never- 
ending  progress  to  perfection?  Do  we  not 
all  possess  within  us  powers  and  capacities 
immeasurably  beyond  the  necessities  of  any 
merely  transitory  life?  And  was  not  this 
more  true  of  him  than  it  is  of  most  of  us? 
And  do  not  these  stir  within  us  yearnings 
irrepressible,  longings  unutterable,  and  a 
curiosity  unsatisfied  and  insatiable  by  aught 
we  see?  Are  these  appetites,  and  passions, 
and  affections,  as  some  would  have  us  believe, 
nothing  but  the  delusive  inheritance  from  our 
savage  forefathers? 

Not  so.  They  are  the  indication  of 
something  within  us  akin  to  something  im- 
measurably beyond  us, — tokens  of  things 
attainable,  yet  not  hitherto  attained, — signs 
of  a  potential  fellowship  with  spirits  nobler 
and  more  glorious  than  our  own, — they  are 
the  title-deeds  of  our  presumptive  heirship 
to  some  brighter  world  than  this. 

The  greater  the  spirit,  the  tenderer  the 
conscience,  the  more  loving  the  life,  the 
stronger  is  the  argument  from  its  very 
discomfiture  and  defeat  here  for  its  immor- 
tality in  a  state  of  which  sight  and  sense  give 
no  evidence,  but  which  shall  forever  grow 
in   knowledge,    and   forever   grow   in   love, 


46  THE  LIFE  IMMORTAL 

where  Anna  shall  meet  her  husband,  David 
his  friend,  and  Rachel  her  children,  and 
being  nearer  there  to  the  source  of  love  shall 
love  them  more  than  they  ever  did. 

If  God  be  God  who  shall  doubt,  save 
perhaps  in  some  morbid  moment,  that  what 
has  been  well-begun  here  will  not  be  for- 
ever interrupted, — that  somewhere  there  is  a 
state  where  what  has  been  ill-done  here  can 
be  atoned, — that  affection  once  kindled 
never  need  cease, — that  sin  committed  can 
be  wiped  out, — that  the  good  conceived  can 
be  achieved, — that  the  good  seed  sown  in  life 
shall  some  day  bloom  and  fructify  in  a  more 
congenial  day, — that  all  that  is  within  us 
which  is  good  and  happy  yet  vainly  struggling 
here  shall  be  free  to  act  hereafter, — that 
families  kept  asunder  by  a  crowd  of  circum- 
stances forever  pushing  them  apart,  and  for- 
ever leaving  them  with  empty  arms,  will 
somewhere  come  together!  Is  such  a  belief 
the  mere  baseless  amusement  of  a  man  who 
likes  to  make  creeds  of  his  aspirations?  Is 
this  a  mere  phantasmagoria  of  love?  a  fata 
morgana  and  nothing  more?  No — a  thou- 
sand times,  No.  If  God  be  good  it  is  a  logi- 
cal necessity. 

Surely  no  waste  could  be  more  wanton,  and 


THE  LIFE  IMMORTAL  47 

therefore  under  a  God  of  wisdom  and  judg- 
ment more  inconceivable  than  that  would 
be  if  the  good  that  is  in  us  should  forever 
perish.  Can  anyone  capable  of  thinking 
seriously  believe  in  such  a  hideous  climax  of 
immorality  as  that?  Then  have  we  before 
us,  as  the  ultimate  result,  human  life  at  its 
best  without  an  adequate  motive,  affections 
without  an  object  to  satisfy  them,  hopes  of 
immortality  never  to  be  realized,  aspira- 
tions after  God  and  godliness  never  to  be 
attained,  and,  as  the  outcome  of  it  all  the 
undisputed  kingdom  of  confusion  and  de- 
spair! This  thing  cannot  be,  as  the  Lord 
liveth,  it  cannot  be.  If  morality  have  any 
serious  basis,  if  its  Teachings  be  not  the  idle 
and  delusive  dreams  of  minds  which  cannot 
think  and  hearts  which  cannot  feel,  it  must 
be  that  "Our  Redeemer  liveth"  and  careth 
for  all  His  children.  What  does  all  this 
mean?  This,  and  nothing  less,  that  our 
dear  brother  is  not  dead,  it  is  only  his  poor 
tired  body  that  sleepeth,  and  that  in  God's 
good  time, 

The  veil  shall  be  rent — 

The  veil  upon  nature's  face, 
And  the  dead  whom  ye  loved,  ye  shall  walk 
with, 


48  THE  LIFE  IMMORTAL 

And  speak  with  the  lost. 
The  delusion  of  death  shall  pass. 

And  for  this  blessed  hope,  Hallelujah!  to 
God  the  Father,  God  the  Son,  and  God  the 
Holy  Ghost! 

Amen !  and  Amen ! 


A  TRIBUTE  TO  EZEKIEL  W.  MUNDY 
Syracuse,  June  8,  191 6 

The  Trustees  of  the  Syracuse  Public  Li- 
brary desire  to  express  our  love  and  reverence 
for  the  memory  of  Ezekiel  W.  Mundy, 
Librarian  Emeritus,  whose  death  has  taken 
place  to-day.  From  1881  until  a  year  ago  he 
was  in  charge  of  the  Public  Library  of  this 
city.  He  brought  to  this  task  a  cultured 
mind,  a  never-failing  and  industrious  loyalty 
to  his  work,  a  generous  wisdom  in  the  adminis- 
tration of  his  duties.  The  collection  of 
books  now  belonging  to  the  city  for  the  free 
use  of  all  its  people  is  a  monument  to  his 
many-sided  intellect  and  to  his  broad  sym- 
pathies. The  example  which  he  set  as  a 
public  servant  is  an  inspiration  to  us  who  have 
shared  his  responsibilities  and  the  thought 
of  having  served  with  him  will  remain  to  us  a 
remembrance  of  an  unusual  privilege  and 
honor. 

While  we  mourn  with  the  members  of  Dr. 

4  49 


50  A  TRIBUTE 

Mundy's  family  the  loss  of  this  noble  and 
unselfish  friend  we  share  with  them  the  satis- 
faction of  having  enjoyed  a  close  relation- 
ship with  a  public  man  whose  work  for  this 
community,  reaching  over  more  than  a 
third  of  a  century,  has  so  warmed  and  stimu- 
lated the  cause  of  popular  education,  has  so 
raised  the  standard  of  public  service,  and  has 
so  constantly  and  impartially  radiated  the 
influence  of  generous  helpfulness  that  he 
made  of  his  official  position  a  title  of  demo- 
cratic nobility. 

Dr.  Mundy  was  a  rare  man.  His  life  was 
an  open  book,  known  and  read  of  all  men,  and 
every  page  of  it  was  clean.  Ambitions  for 
fame  and  wealth  never  laid  hold  on  him.  He 
was  too  gentle  and  sincere  to  follow  the  paths 
trodden  by  self-seeking  men.  He  lived  in  an 
atmosphere  of  thought,  of  sentiment,  and  of 
the  kindly  virtues.  It  is  pleasant  to  re- 
member that  so  many  of  his  y  ears  were  spent  in 
an  environment  so  well  suited  to  his  inclina- 
tion and  ability.  For  years  he  was  the  head 
of  the  Syracuse  Public  Library.  To  him, 
more  than  any  other,  is  due  the  development 
and  growth  of  this  great  public  institution. 
It  was  his  constant  thought  and  care.  He 
put  his  personality  into  it.     It  was  his  off- 


A  TRIBUTE  51 

spring.  To  the  citizens  of  Syracuse  of  middle 
life  the  Library  suggested  Dr.  Mundy,  as 
thought  of  him  also  brings  the  Library  to 
mind.  To  the  Trustees,  association  with  him 
was  a  constant  delight.  His  quiet  and  kindly 
spirit  smoothed  away  all  troubles  and  vexa- 
tions. He  was  loved  by  all  who  knew  him. 
Rare  tact,  a  very  noble  philosophy,  and  a 
fine  appreciation  of  all  human  things  enabled 
him  to  live  above  the  rough  and  tumble  of 
life,  and  ripen  with  the  years  into  a  humble, 
trustful  child  of  God. 

Douglas  E.  Petit 
F.  W.  Betts 
Paul  M.  Paine 

For  the  Trustees. 


IN  CONCLUSION 

The  character  and  ideals  of  such  a  man  as 
has  been  described  in  the  foregoing  pages  are 
unique  and  for  most  of  us  inimitable.  One 
to  whom  has  fallen  the  duty  of  carrying  on  for 
a  while  the  work  to  which  he  gave  most  of  his 
life  can  best  show  loyalty  to  the  tradition 
which  Dr.  Mundy's  life  established  in  the 
Library  by  striving  to  supplement  and  con- 
tinue what  he  did  rather  than  to  imitate 
what  he  was. 

It  is  as  a  public  servant  that  Dr.  Mundy 
was  known  to  the  present  generation  of 
Syracusans.  The  quality  of  his  devotion 
to  the  public  service  was  more  than  merely 
conscientious.  It  was  a  passion  with  him  to 
be  useful  even  in  the  humblest  way  in  bring- 
ing the  light  and  warmth  of  good  reading  to 
the  homes  of  the  people  of  the  city.  That 
tradition  remains  a  priceless  heritage  to  the 
institution  he  so  deeply  loved. 

Syracuse,  April,  1917. 
52 


